I'm in the hospital. after days of picking and selling corn in 100 heat. Whoda' thunk it? actually, my hernias got me. I had 7, and they were starting to "incarcerate" my bowels. After the vomitting, and screaming in pain, there came more vomitting and screaming. My stepson drove me to the hospital. Had to keep telling him to slow down, Wouldn't do me any good to wind up in a ditch.

Carnifex, seven hernias?! How are you doing now, do they have the pain under control for you? Sorry to hear this, I know that must have been hellish. Did you have the surgery already? I imagine they took you in immediately.

Watching Law & Order reruns. I miss Jerry Orbach. It would have been so cool to be able to see him in The Fantasticks. I heard a recording of him singing "Lullaby of Broadway" -- what a fantastic rich voice!

Coincidentally, I bought some sweet corn just this morning at the farmers market (it is pretty amazing too!) from a black family who was also selling watermellon because the farmers market is racist, just like the bear on drudge.

Let's consider some similarities between Joseph Smith, the founder of Romney's Mormonism, and Charles Manson:

- Both took Christianity as a basis and built upon it with their own divine scripture: Smith's golden plates, and Manson's interpretation of the Beatles' White Album.

- Both attracted a group of committed followers who considered him a savior. Smith labelled his followers "Saints", and Manson labelled his "the Family". Both groups of followers would eventually commit theologically-motivated massacres-- the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the Manson Murders.

- Both considered himself at least a prophet (in Smith's case on the order of Moses), or perhaps a second-coming of Jesus Christ.

- While leading their followers, both escaped intrigue and disputes and criminal charges in one place by moving the group to more remote places: Smith from Western New York to Ohio to Missouri to Nauvoo; Manson from Haight-Ashbury to Dennis Wilson's House to Spahn Ranch to Death Valley.

- Both were paranoid that their followers might be plotting against them, and both took pre-emptive action to get rid of these perceived troublemakers.

- Both engaged in, and promoted, unusual group sex practices: Smith under the tenuous guise of "plural marriage" and "spiritual wifery", and Manson under the blunt non-guise of "drug-fueled orgies".

- And, most importantly, both told their followers that they would soon rule the world: Smith via his millennial Kingdom of God plan, and Manson via his Helter Skelter plan. (Both of which were pre-ordained, btw...)

QUIZ: Which one was declared by his followers, while leading a life with multiple sexual partners, in a location retreated to as an outlaw, to be "prophet, priest and king"? Joseph Smith? Or Charles Manson?

The owl looks like it's wearing clothes. The official clothes and broad collar of a chief or Parliamentarian. He is one of a parliament of owls.

A photoshop site member's favorite theme is owls wearing Scandinavian hats with the ear flaps. If you google [owls in hats] you might see one of his but the rest will be real hats like that in the shape of owls.

I do not think that owls have interesting lives. They just sit there all day in their Scandinavian flap hats then go silently out into the night, I'm imagining this, and catch a rodent, bring it back, tear it up and scarf it, digest it all day, hurl the indigestible bits and poop the rest. The next day same thing all over.

Before you go, hey wait a minute that's not much different from what people do, I'm comparing them with other birds that do all kind of wonderful awesome and interesting things all day long besides turn their head all the way around. Like this woo.

For a birder, I'm imagining again, an owl would be a great find but not all that fun to watch.

Dad had one. And he had nothing to say about it either, and I drilled him about that owl too when I found out about it, except to say that I can't have one.

I couldn't have a hawk either.

So don't even ask about an eagle or a vulture.

That's how deprived I've been this whole time. Yes, for I am but a poor boy and my story's seldom told. I have squa

The point is I was never allowed to have a serious bird and the canary doesn't count.

With analysis like your Charles Manson and Joseph Smith piece, God, I wonder how you haven't solved every social problem known to mankind, cured cancer, cleared up the traffic on I-5 in LA, and coached the Cubs to 10 world series.

You, my fried, are literally the smartest man on the planet. Your facts are superior to all other facts, just because you utter them.

Your analysis leaves a room full of electric-fire smelling smoke.

And your conclusions are right not just for the issue you solved, for for 10 or 12 other unrelated issues as well.

My eyesight was corrected to 20/20 just by reading your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

(But seriously, that's you, isn't it Charles. They let you have a computer in prison?)